Using UAD Satellite Quad USB with R12.5

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jpr2012
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Joined: 22 Feb 2023

22 Feb 2023

Hi, new ReasonTalk member here , but using Reason since R6.5.

I am hoping to buy a Satellite and would appreciate any advice on its compatibility with R12.5. I've had conflicting opinions from both UAD and Reason Studios about whether this is a practical proposition. Im using W10 in an old i7-4790 with 32GB of RAM. My concerns are:

1) Will this accelerator take the strain off my CPU when using UAD plugins in busy mixes, and to what extent?

2) Are there likely to be any problems with synchronising the hardware with the DAW (ie Delay Comp)? I don't record or track these days, just mixing and using a buffer of 2048 samples, hence no need for an interface such as Apollo.

3) Anything else you might think of that l should be aware of. I've searched high and low in ReasonTalk and elsewhere, but can't find much recent info to sway me one way or the other.

Thanks in advance!

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QVprod
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23 Feb 2023

UAD just made many of their plugins (soon to be all) available for direct purchase. You no longer need UAD hardware nor a subscription. Just run the UADx version. Try a demo and see how it works on your system.

As that tells you, UAD processors are really not all that powerful by todays standards. For the price of a satellite, you could buy a whole new computer, or even just change out the motherboard and have far more power to work with.

https://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/native-bundles.html

jpr2012
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Joined: 22 Feb 2023

23 Feb 2023

Many thanks for your reply. In fact it was trialling some of their Native plugins that led me to look into UAD hardware.

My PC is now over 7 years old, so to some extent yes, it could pay me to just get a new, more powerful machine. However in the UK a new PC, even with the same spec as the one l have now, would cost me nearly double what I can get a Quad Satellite for, and that's out of my budget at the moment. I use a lot of Acustica Audio Acquas in my mixes, which is why the computer still stutters occasionally , and that's why I would like an external device to relieve the pressure on my CPU.

If you're using UAD hardware yourself, how does it play with Reason? I've asked Reason Studios and UAD about this and received vague and conflicting messages. Any observations would be greatly appreciated!

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Arrant
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23 Feb 2023

I can't answer for the satellites, but I have some UAD-2 PCI cards in my system and they work just fine in Reason.
They will indeed offload some of the plugin load from your CPU, although the DSP chips are very old now and not that powerful. A quad is probably the minimum you'll need to get some decent value out of it.

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QVprod
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23 Feb 2023

jpr2012 wrote:
23 Feb 2023
Many thanks for your reply. In fact it was trialling some of their Native plugins that led me to look into UAD hardware.

My PC is now over 7 years old, so to some extent yes, it could pay me to just get a new, more powerful machine. However in the UK a new PC, even with the same spec as the one l have now, would cost me nearly double what I can get a Quad Satellite for, and that's out of my budget at the moment. I use a lot of Acustica Audio Acquas in my mixes, which is why the computer still stutters occasionally , and that's why I would like an external device to relieve the pressure on my CPU.

If you're using UAD hardware yourself, how does it play with Reason? I've asked Reason Studios and UAD about this and received vague and conflicting messages. Any observations would be greatly appreciated!
It's kinda hard to get around your computer being old. The Satellites were made for computers older than yours and have never been updated in power.

I have an Apollo Solo. The plugins (native and DSP) work just fine as far as functionally. But the dsp chips are really not worth it for mixing unless you intend to buy multiple Satellites. I can probably get about 5-6 plugins max on the single chip.perhaps the Quad can give you maybe up to 20, but that depends on what plugins you're using.

jpr2012
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Feb 2023

23 Feb 2023

Thanks to QVprod and Arrant.

I've been advised that if l fit a Pcie to my PC I'll then be able to use a Firewire Satellite, which seem to be in reasonable and cheaper supply in the UK. If that's not enough I understand I'll be able to attach another Satellite. To be honest, if l can squeeze 20 plugins from one, then that ought to solve my problem. I'm hoping to have something installed early next week and will report back on (hopefully) any progress

MuttReason
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Joined: 28 Jan 2021

23 Feb 2023

I use a UAD Arrow and have recently bought a UAD Apollo X4. I love UAD hardware and plugins, I think the company is pretty great at all this stuff. My reason for buying into the whole UAD thing is v low latency when tracking plus the Unison tech is a bonus when it comes to emulating expensive vintage gear as a recording front end. I love recording through it. And yes, it all works great with Reason 12 and with other DAWs (I also use Ableton Live 11 Suite).

I tend to use UAD2 plugins in the Unison slot on the Arrow/Apollo when tracking and then a combination of UAD2 DSP-powered plugins plus a couple of UADx native plugins when mixing. One mild irritation is that UAD haven't yet converted their UAD2 DSP plugins to VST3 (regular complaints about this on the UAD forum) but the UADx native plugins ARE all VST3. So I end up running a mix of VST2 and VST3 plugins together which (I’ve been told) isn’t ideal. UAD2 are now the only VST2 plugins left on my system, everything else is VST3 now.

jpr2012
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Feb 2023

28 Feb 2023

Bought and installed a Pcie card and second hand Firewire Quad, costing well under half the full retail of a new one. It took a while to set it all up but seems to work really well. I don't track these days, so no need for an Apollo, though it would have been nice to have one when l recorded in the past.

I've set one or two Native versions alongside the DSP counterparts and there are slight differences in sound, mainly requiring level matching. There seem to be no problems mixing and matching VST2 and VST3 versions.

As mentioned, one Quad might not be enough in the future, but here they're around £200 here for used Firewire models. I understand, too, that they can be used alongside USB models.

Now to see whether UAD have some good sales - the current prices, even on offer, can be quite pricey.

I would like to remove all the unused stuff that UAD forced me to install, but I can't find a way to do that. Thanks everyone for the advice, and if there are any other tips and tricks they would be very welcome.

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